SABBATH SCHOOLS—THEIR USE AND ABUSE.
Or we must have dwelt on the fact that no parent is at liberty to devolve the Christian training of his child upon another. It is the primary law of God over all, that the parent should see to the child’s religious training; and the home in which that is neglected, is one where a large portion of the law of God is ignored. Sabbath-schools have been blessed beyond what can be told, to remedy existing evils—to roll back, or at least repress, the rising tide of iniquity; and multitudes will rejoice for ever over such institutions. SABBATH
SCHOOLS—
THEIR USE
AND ABUSE. In the state of degradation into which multitudes have sunk, they have long been our only hope—but they belong to a diseased state of society. They are for those who would otherwise be neglected or outcast, and can never supersede the obligation imposed upon all parents, without exception, to bring up their children in the nurture of the Lord.
Or, in providing for the Christianizing of men’s homes, we might have spoken on the subject of correction, and told that, in spite of modern theories to the contrary, that is an ordinance of God—though never to be employed till all else has failed, and to be administered, when administered at all, through tears, as giving more pain to the parent who corrects, than to the child who is corrected.
CHILDREN—THEIR ONLY RULE.
Or, in adverting to the ascendency of Christian principle in our homes, we might mention the need of care on the part of parents, lest they commit their children to paths, in regard to this world’s business, where a very miracle of grace is needed to save them from destruction. CHILDREN—
THEIR ONLY
RULE. Who can doubt, that in selecting the school where their offspring shall be trained, or the master whom they shall serve, or the profession which they shall follow, many a parent has sacrificed his child to the god of this world? This is a sore evil; and in an age like ours, when even the souls of men are made a matter of merchandise, a Christian parent will beware lest he expose inexperienced youth amid scenes where everlasting destruction may await the soul.
But these we only name, and now offer one suggestion to the young themselves: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord;” or, “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord.”—These are the Scriptural injunctions, from which there can be no swerving without committing sin. Did parents issue some command contrary to the Word of God, then a Christian child must decline obeying it, for that child is bound by a higher allegiance to God; but in all common cases, the parent is in God’s place to the child. The parent’s will is law—a law which cannot be broken without guilt. That law, indeed, is to be administered with the sceptre of love, and not with a rod of iron; and while children are to obey their parents, “parents are not to provoke their children to wrath.” But still, the unvarying rule is—the parent’s will is supreme; and wherever filial affection reigns, that law will be sacredly observed, because it is founded on the authority of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is guarded on the one hand by the promise of blessings to the obedient, and on the other by such words as these: “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.” Insubordination here is the root of wrath and woe.
MASTER AND SERVANT.
Next to the relation of husband and wife, and parent and child, stands that of master and servant; and here also our homes should be presided over by Christian principle. MASTER
AND
SERVANT. On the one hand, there is obedience due even to the forward; and on the other, there is care and kindness—kindness to the souls of our domestics, as well as in other respects. In our mercenary and utilitarian age, when human beings are often regarded by hard-minded men, only as so much living machinery, and when the chief question concerning them is too often the same as that which is employed concerning the beasts that perish—How can their flesh and blood be turned to most profitable account?—this relation is often formed or conducted upon principles the reverse of Christian. The employed are too ready to prey upon the employer, while he treats them with lordly indifference or with heartless disregard. They are thus often arrayed against each other, like natural enemies, instead of being united, as mutually dependent.
But a better day has dawned, in which the bonds which unite master and servant are better understood. If servants are to act like those who serve the Lord Christ, and to do their duty heartily as unto the Lord, masters are to beware lest their dependants be hindered in that service by selfish exaction or inconsiderate unkindness. This relation is not a merely mercenary one—it is degraded when viewed only in that light. It has moral elements mixed up with it now, as in the days of old, when Abraham commanded his household, as well as his children, to “keep the way of the Lord.” The soul as well as the body, eternity as well as time, are to be kept in view in this as in every relation; and never was that principle outraged without eventual injury to all. It is much to oppress the hireling, or rob him of his wages; but it is more to defraud the soul of its due. It is much to occasion pain by haughtiness or harshness; but it is more to coerce or to sully the conscience; and the Bible is not the lamp of that home where souls are thus defrauded.
“NOT AT HOME”—A LIE.